2 cops shot in leg while executing warrant

Two Chicago police officers were shot this afternoon near 112th Place and State. Both suffered gunshot wounds to the leg. (Mike Anzaldi/For the Tribune)

Two veteran Chicago police officers were shot Thursday afternoon after they burst into a Roseland apartment to execute a search warrant for drugs.

The officers, both wounded in a lower leg, returned fire. The alleged gunman, 22, was taken into police custody uninjured, authorities said.

The gunfight inside a second-floor apartment in the first block of East 112th Place occurred within feet of a 3-year-old girl who was in an adjacent room, Police Supt. Jody Weis said.

She was unhurt. Weis described the gunman as shooting blindly through a closed door, hoping to strike the officers.

"To put a child in that type of risk is unbelievable to me and that ignores the fact that they're trying to murder police officers," Weis said.

Weis said the officers, a 15-year veteran, 45, and a nine-year veteran, 34, were released from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn after treatment.

The superintendent, joined by Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue outside the hospital, said he was deeply troubled by the number of recent police-involved shootings.

"For the month of July we've almost had an incident a day where someone has tried to murder a police officer," Weis said, adding that three such shootings took place within 24 hours.

"The level of violence being shown at police officers is extraordinarily disturbing," he said.

The plainclothes narcotics officers were part of a team serving a search warrant at the apartment about 12:50 p.m.

After shouting "police," the officers, wearing badges and body armor, forced entry into the home and were shot as they approached a rear bedroom door, Weis said.

Some witnesses reported hearing as many as 20 shots as officers returned fire.

The gunman, who had not yet been charged, and several others inside the apartment were taken to Calumet Area police headquarters for questioning, Weis said. After the shooting, dozens of uniformed and plainclothes officers converged on the scene, cordoning off the entire block that includes the offices of Ald. Anthony Beale (9th).

Beale was in a meeting at his South Side office when the shots rang out. Staffers "knew the shots were extremely close because of the sound," he said. "They crouched down and just got out of the way of the windows."

The shooting Thursday came more than 12 hours after police were involved in a shooting not far away near 116th Street and Yale Avenue, in which a man was shot after police said he pointed a gun at officers responding to a report of gunfire. The man was in good condition.

On Wednesday, Chicago police were involved in another shooting -- this one in the Illinois Medical District neighborhood that left a jewelry store robbery suspect seriously injured. An officer was slightly injured after the suspect allegedly tried to run police down as they attempted to capture him.